Nick Clegg’s speech: ending 65 years of waiting

The leader’s speech had grabby turns of phrase to get across a message Mr Clegg has been hammering home since he came to office, the accidental Deputy Prime Minister. There was warm applause, especially for the attacks on Labour. No attacks on the Tories, warm words even for his old foe David Cameron who got to have a look at the speech before it was delivered.

Tories will have approved of Nick Clegg’s tough line on the deficit reduction plan – he even praised the coalition schools policy that his conference rejected this morning, even if he was riding to the rescue a little after the event.

The Lib Dem activists were in search of a song they could sing. Nick Clegg tried to provide it. “I want you to imagine what you will say to people when you knock on their door at the next general election,” Nick Clegg said. Some fear they’ll be saying “please don’t hit me.”

The DPM gave them some alternative lines about taking pride in a whole host of achievements on ID cards, Afghan withdrawal, cutting reoffending and much more. And in a message forged in his constituency of Sheffield he insisted repeatedly that this retrenchment will not be like the 1980’s.

An interesting moment in the warm-up video before Mr Clegg came on. They played that footage of him walking up Downing Street back in May and being greeted by David Cameron on the doorstep of No. 10 – the first time a Liberal Democrat had held government office in 65 years. Sixty five years of waiting, and there was not one single clap.